travel

Going somewhere new mixes a little stress with a lot of excitement.

Last minute details, things to pack, arrangements to make… all balanced by the experience of elsewhere - sights, people, the possibility of experiencing life from another perspective. Perhaps best of all when I return from such a trip, I see anew what was once familiar.

A friend of mine talks about living life like a traveler: meeting everyday events with the mindset we have when we are in faraway places. We tend to be more curious, more energized, more open when we are away from the familiar – and this energy attracts conversations with people and encounters that rarely happen when we are immersed in our regular routine. What would happen if we brought a traveler’s approach into our daily schedule? would we see familiar sights in different ways? strike up conversations with the people we didn’t notice or take the time to engage?

Teaching Dance Appreciation at GMU is a little like a global tour. We look at and discuss dances from around the world, and the students enrich this experience by introducing their own stories of living and traveling in different countries. As I think about this, I find myself looking forward to the start of classes at the end of this month.